Inside the isolation ward, the air had grown utterly still.
The Senjutsu medical chakra formed by Tsunade's fusion with the Katsuyu Sage's clone slowly approached the densest, most active mass of darkness source near Uchiha Itachi's heart, like a spear of light guided with exquisite precision. The closer it drew to the core, the more frantically that power resisted. No longer content merely to defend itself, it split into countless fine black threads that writhed like living tendrils, coiling around and corroding the emerald chakra stream in an attempt to contaminate that wellspring of life.
"Hmph, your last desperate struggle!" Tsunade's gaze was sharp as a blade. The radiance of the Strength of a Hundred Technique blazed at its peak as she forcibly steadied her chakra output, making it even more concentrated and pure. Katsuyu's Senjutsu energy shone like the gentlest yet most unwavering purifying light, steadily dissolving the black tendrils that tried to strike back.
Szzzt-!
The instant the emerald spear of light finally touched the core of the darkness source, a violent clash of energy erupted on a microscopic level! It was not an explosion, but mutual annihilation on a deeper level-the level of fundamental laws! Even the lights in the ward flickered, and the monitoring equipment let out shrill alarms!
Itachi's body suddenly arched. Even in his deep coma, he let out a muffled groan of excruciating pain, and purplish-black blood once again seeped from his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth!
"Hold him down! Stabilize his vital signs!" Tsunade growled, diverting part of her attention to sustaining Itachi's basic life functions.
This was a contest that pushed willpower and energy to their limits. Tsunade's chakra was a vast ocean of life, and Katsuyu's Senjutsu was the purest light within it, while the darkness source was the most